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Stuck on last minute Christmas gifts for the cyclist and retrobiker in your life? There is still plenty of time to pick something up either from your local bike shop or most of the online retailers. Let us help you avoid a last minute dash to Marks & Spencer’s for a pack of socks on Christmas Eve with our top ten last minute gift guide. (more…)

Barnoldswick. It just sounds like a Northern village name. I can’t hear it without thinking of a northern accent saying it. The kind of place you find in a rom-com where Cameron Diaz goes to find herself but finds Ewan McGregor instead. What you actually find in Barnoldswick is Hope.

Pulling up at the house of Hope is quite different from most of the British bike industry I’ve visited. It’s, well, kind of American actually. At least in appearance. Kind of huge in presence and neat in display. You’d never think this gentrified modernised church of British bicycle family silver was actually made in this incredibly smart building, it’s just too nice, too neat, too, well, American. But this front of house is entirely appropriate. To the founders, to the workers, to the ethos, to the product. (more…)

The word legend is one which is used all to readily, especially in sporting endeavour. For a select few the titled is deserved, the sadly late Jason McRoy was surely one of those. In the days when MTBing was still a relatively young sport and many retrobikers still young men JMC took on the best in the world and in many cases won. His life was tragically cut short but the memory lives on. The McRoy family have been auctioning some of his bikes with proceeds going to charity. This FSR was the last bike Jason raced on and was sold earlier this year for a shade over £5K. The seller has relisted it, once again some proceeds are going to the JMC Foundation. Check the auction out here > JMC Specialized FSR and discuss in the forum here.

Why a retrobike?

The coolest people of every generation have an icon. During the 1960s, among the rock n’ roll set on Chelsea’s Kings Road, it was the Jaguar E-Type. In the 2010s, the trendsetters are the 20-something media types of Shoreditch. They wear skinny jeans that stop above the ankle, and the coolest have meticulously manicured moustaches. Their preferred mode of transportation is a retrobike, specifically a fixed-wheel road bike from the 1970s or 80s, such as a Colnago or a Mercian. Less cool, but still way ahead of most of the population, is a slightly older male – mid 30s to mid 40s – typically a graphic designer with a penchant for classic trainers and vintage mountain bikes. On dry spring and summer days, they can be spotted cycling to work at a design studio in Islington on classic mountain bikes from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some are on top-of-the-range dream bikes like the Klein Attitude, Fat Chance Yo Eddy, and the Yeti FRO, while others ride models like the Muddy Fox Courier, or an early Marin, which – to retrobikers – are just as cool from a design point of view. The main reason for this is that the century-old classic bicycle design reached a peak around this time, before technology such as suspension and hydraulic brakes changed the game. In essence, a retrobike, from entry-level to top end, is a celebration of classic bike design. (more…)

So, here we go again, another lame Edwards tale that will follow the usual format. I’d echo Micheal Gove with his “yadda, yadda, yadda” from Newsnight (I can’t believe I’ve just repped Gove) but I know that more is expected, desired even. They say never change a winning formula but when your formula ain’t winning you sure as hell make changes. So, if you’re after the usual hackneyed recounting of lack of physical and mechanical preparation, unfortunate bowel evacuation, shoehorned popular culture and your modest scribe bravely saving the day via scarcely creditable heroics then you will be disappointed. But somehow I doubt it.

I’ve ridden l’eroica twice before, taking on the full 205km L’Erocia in 2010 and then the more modest 135km L’Erocia in 2012 to take full advantage of a beer in the sunny square in Gaoile in Chianti while the dust was still fresh on my legs. Despite being enjoyable, neither visit was completely satisfying due to some elementary errors – finishing downhill on the Strade Bianche in the dark with no lights or brakes in 2010, turning up with 42×23 in 2012. Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” and I wasn’t for arguing with Bertie Boy (well, I have some quibbles with the E = mc² lark – no, not the risible Big Audio Dynamite clunker – although I’d obviously agree that with mass being equivalent to or converted to energy, at relativistic speeds particles become harder to accelerate because as you inject more energy their mass appears to increase if only because it explains, succinctly, the additional challenge faced by a big boned rider). But, crucially, would it be third time lucky or once, twice, three times a lady?

It’s pretty obvious that the physical preparation wasn’t going to all it should be. And it wasn’t. But my mechanical skills were much improved and with a week before departure I had a fully working bike (ok, ok, I hadn’t actually confirmed that it worked by riding it). I was particularly impressed by my ingenuity in getting the Super Record rear mech to work with the 28t Shimano freewheel – at first the upper cage and the freewheel interfered with each other but with the use of half a cable end cap I fabricated a solution that was as effective as it was inelegant. Naturally I left packing the bike away until 5 hours before we had to leave for the airport. Which considering that we had to leave the house at 3.30 a.m. was someway short of the exacting standards of preparation that I pride myself on. (more…)

Hans Jörg Rey aka Hans “No Way” Rey will need no introduction to anyone who has ridden a Mountain Bike in the past twenty five years. The GT Bicycles veteran has multiple World and National championships under his belt but it his consistently high media profile many will know him for best. Images of Hans’ spectacular mountain bike trials shows and adventures are amongst the most iconic in the sport and have graced numerous magazine covers and posters. Hans kindly took the time to answer 20 questions for us…

1) Retrobike: How’s life in 2012?Hans Rey: Life is good in 2013!!! I’m still living the dream, I’m as busy as ever riding bikes and having fun. I would have never dreamt that I would have such long and good career. I try to stay relevant to the times and my age, inspire people to ride or live their own dreams all along while making sure the sponsors get what they are looking for. I’ve done some great trips to Haiti (MTB Ayiti Event), Kenya & Uganda, Southern French Alps with Dan Atherton and the Lofoten Islands above the Arctic Circle in Norway.

England has a historical north-south divide. But not these days surely? Not in the age of homogenised pursuits like Saturday shopping, the cinema the night before and the pub the morning after? Must be just the same up there as we are down here, must be.

No. They are not. They are hard. Maybe it’s the relentless economic climate that nurtures the south and freezes out the north. Being overlooked and neglected has made them tough. And they laugh about it. Pride themselves on it. Shandy drinking soft southerners. Being British has always been built on an element of banter within, but there is truth in the soft south, hard north divide. Maybe it’s as simple as the bleak weather. Maybe it’s deeper. Whatever it is, I am most definitely a southerner, kind of soft and am driving north into the rain and cold to see a little handmade British global success story. (more…)

bikedeals is a new website that has been launched to save cyclists time and money by presenting the best deals currently on the market all in one place.

To celebrate the site’s launch bikedeals are giving away an exposure sirius light! All you have to do to win this fine prize is register on the site (which is easy) and post on the competition thread, full details here.

Bikedeals.cc presents the best deals currently on the market all in one place. The bikedeals community analyse the UK bike retailers (e.g. Wiggle, CRC, Evans Cycles) looking for the biggest and best deals and then share them on bikedeals.cc daily. We use our extensive experience and respond to the market and current trends to present the best deals. We’re unbiased in the deals that we feature and many of the products we present are tried and tested by the bikedeals.cc community.

Bikedeals also collates cycling vouchers and discount codes for money off on all the main biking sites. These vouchers are usually only valid for a few days but are worth keeping an eye on for the keen bargain hunter; examples include 15% off all clothing at Evans Cycles, 15% off everything at ProBikeKit.

Retrobike was lucky enough to attend the 2013 Cycleshow at the NEC on the Thursday Press / Trade day. Having not been to a mainstream bike show for a few years (not since the defunct ‘Bike Show’) it was good to see such a large show with a diverse number of exhibitors – it would certainly seem that cycling is indeed in the ascendancy. Our overall highlights of the show were as follows

*Seeing Daley Thompson (legend!)
*Plenty of manufacturers turning out high end steel race frames. Not because it’s niche but because it’s a fine material for the job.
*Depth and breadth of stands, everything from the big corporate displays from the usual suspects down to much smaller companies with some interesting products.
*The proliferation of utility bikes, commuting bikes and e-bikes. Are we on the verge of a paradigm shift here in the UK?
*The real high end stuff. The game keeps moving on, some of the £10k+ Pinarellos and their ilk with electronic gearing were things of functional beauty.

Of course being firmly rooted in the past here at retrobike we cast our beady eyes over the stands and exhibitors with items of interest to the retro aficionado. There was plenty there to interest the cyclist who can recall the last time a steel frame won a major bike race, however don’t come here expecting fancy lugwork and beards. Our highlights were as follows (more…)